How do you assess where we are at in terms of building international solidarity?
Despite many attempts to repress the mass protests around the world they continue.
We continue to see student and staff encampments on campuses in the United States, Europe, South Africa, Australia and many other places around the world.
Something that has been particularly heartening to see is anti-Zionist Jewish organisations, primarily led by young people, coming out to say “Not in our name” and raising the slogan “Never again means never again for everyone”.
So too the workers around the world blocking boats destined for Israel and refusing to handle Israeli goods.
The response in some key US states during the primaries, where people have refused to endorse Biden, is another good sign.
In terms of what we are seeing, many of us feel that a tipping or inflection point has been reached.
For a long time, Israel was allowed to act with impunity and without restraint.
But we are starting to see changes we would not have thought possible a few years ago. Primarily in the US, but also in Germany and some other European countries, there are cracks and fissures starting to show.
For example, sanctions are now on the cards for many countries and even United Nations’ agencies. Malaysia has refused to allow Israeli-flagged cargo ships to dock in its ports. Namibia has sanctioned the sale of diamonds to Israel. So, things are changing.
Something similar happened with South Africa.
The first call for a boycott campaign against Apartheid was made as early as 1959.
But it was only when dockworkers in Liverpool started refusing to load and unload South African goods; when supermarket workers in Ireland started refusing to handle South African products; when people in New Zealand started to protest against touring South African sporting teams, that governments started to change their positions.
Today, the hard work of activists throughout the world has enabled us to make very rapid gains.
Of course, this has come at a huge price for Palestinians. And we still have much work to do. The reality today looks very grim — as it did in the ’80s in my country.
But there is a well-known phrase that “the night is darkest just before dawn breaks”. Many Palestinians feel this current moment may be a moment of change.
How valid are comparisons between Israel and Apartheid South Africa?
The first thing to note is that the extent and brutality of the Israeli regime is much more staggering than that of Apartheid South Africa — which is saying a lot.
The difference [is] Israel feels it can dispose of the Palestinian people whereas the South African apartheid regime could not do that with South African workers, because they needed to super exploit their labour in order to accumulate capital.
At the same time, there are many points of commonality.
For example, Apartheid South Africa was a settler colonial formation formed by Europeans and initially overseen by British imperialism, just like Israel.
There are also clear similarities between the 65-odd pieces of discriminatory legislation in Israel that govern all aspects of everyday life with what existed under apartheid in South Africa.
All of this has led a number of organisations to conclude that systemic and widespread discriminatory Israeli policies and practices against Palestinians amount to a violation of the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.
[However], in her September 2022 report to the UN General Assembly on human rights in the occupied territories, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese speaks to some limits of the apartheid framework.
For example, she notes that recent reports on Israeli apartheid exclude the experience of Palestinian refugees. She says recognition of Israeli apartheid must address the experience of the Palestinian people in its entirety, including those who were displaced in 1947‒48.
She also notes that a focus on Israeli apartheid alone misses the inherent illegality of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.
Finally, Albanese notes that the apartheid framework does not address the “root causes” of what she calls settler colonialism — a war crime under the Rome Statute.
All this is worth considering when discussing Israeli apartheid.